


Faith and Desire

by telliefan (captainamergirl)



Category: General Hospital
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-08 23:38:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6880162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/telliefan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AJ finds out about Liz and Jason's colorful past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faith and Desire

**Faith and Desire**  
  
She found him sitting at the bar at Jake’s, just as she had expected she would. A glass of bourbon sat in front of him and a shot glass full of vodka was pressed to his lips. Her first instinct was to run out of there with her tail between her legs but her second instinct was to stay and fight. She went with her third instinct though instead, which was to grab the shot glass out of his hand. She wrenched it free and put her to her own lips, downing the liquid in one burning gulp. He glared at her with those piercing dark eyes of his and she glared back at him defiantly. “You want to get plastered, AJ? You’re going to have to match me then - shot for shot.” She felt like the Elizabeth of old right then. Not the mother of two illegitimate sons and the town saint, a title she would never have chosen for herself. She felt like the Elizabeth who loved hard, played fast, and fought for what she wanted tooth and nail. And god help her, she wanted AJ Quartermaine.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
He stared at her and then felt his lips twist in a smirk. “You’re trying to make some kind of point here, Elizabeth, but honestly I’m not sure what it is. I don’t think you do either.”  
  
She shook her head defiantly. “I know exactly what I’m doing. If you want to throw your life away then you’re going to have to take me down with you.”  
  
AJ laughed loudly but the sound was hollow and humorless. “You already went down ... With my brother of all people. And I found that out today along with everyone else while you were on the witness stand testifying in that thug’s defense.”  
  
He watched her cringe, her delicate features contorting for a moment in humiliation and maybe even a bit of self-loathing. Two emotions he knew intimately. For a moment, he almost felt sorry for her. For a moment. Then he pictured her riding his brother and felt sick all over again. It wasn’t from the alcohol poisoning his gut either.  
  
“I should have told you, maybe,” Elizabeth allowed.  
  
He shook his head and placed his hand on the glass of bourbon. He watched the feral expression in her eyes, the dare. If he drank, she was going to drink. It was an oddly comforting and disturbing thought all at the same time.  
  
“Maybe?” He said as his fingers tightened around the glass.  
  
“Don’t drink, AJ, don’t,” Elizabeth said. “You’ve fought too hard for your sobriety to lose it now. Not over this. Jason and I happened over a year ago ... long before you and I ...”  
  
“Slept together. Screwed. Fucked.” He smirked again. “Take your pick.”  
  
She shook her head, a tendril of her chestnut locks tumbling free from her carefully arranged chignon. He had the strongest urge to reach out and tuck it behind her ear like he always did but he resisted. She was a blaze of contradictions and for once, he didn’t relish the idea of being burnt. He had cared about her, maybe even loved her in his own twisted way, and she had done this. Gone to bed with him while apparently still loving his half-brother. The contract killer, the soulless, emotionless robot. AJ had lost so many people to that bastard Jason but it had never bothered him quite this much. He had wanted Elizabeth to be the one thing he didn’t have to share with his brother and that couldn’t be. It was a Greek tragedy, a sad, sick joke all played on him.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
She watched his hand clenched around the glass and she knew he wanted that drink just as badly as she wanted to convince him he didn’t need it. She didn’t want to be his savior; God knew she was tired of playing that role, but she didn’t want him to lose it all over her. He had fought so hard to get sober and now one ill-timed court room revelation was going to topple it all. If he knew about Jake’s true paternity, he would really go over the edge. She wanted to tell him the truth about that as well but knew protecting her son had to be her first priority right now.  
  
She felt Coleman watching them curiously and she waved to the bartender. “Coleman, please get me whatever he’s having.”  
  
Coleman nodded and turned around to begin preparing her drinks. AJ stared at her with some unrecognizable expression in his eyes and then looked at Coleman. “Hey, don’t serve her. She’s got to go home to her kids tonight.”  
  
“Keep pouring, Coleman,” Elizabeth said, titling her chin at AJ defiantly. “If you can throw away your life, AJ, so can I.”  
  
AJ threw up his hands. “You’re impossible.”  
  
“So are you,” Elizabeth said and watched as he tossed a fifty dollar bill down on the bar.  
  
“I always drink alone, Liz, and you’re ruining it,” he said and then strode towards the door. She watched him pull his car keys out of the pocket of his suit jacket and she panicked. She took off after him.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
He heard her running after him, calling his name, and some sadistic part of him really enjoyed it. He never got to be the one who walked out; he was always the one who was left behind. He smiled and kept walking even as he knew he was going to ignore her pleas for him not to get into his Lexus and drive. She had elected herself his guardian angel for whatever reason. Maybe so she could continue to be around Jason, have access to his life via AJ’s occasional run-ins with the borg. Suddenly every moment AJ had shared with Elizabeth was called into question. Every touch, caress, kiss, laugh, smile ... All of it now he wondered if it had really been authentic or just some ruse. He felt sick at the very idea.  
  
He sped up his pace as he heard her keep calling his name still more. His hands shook a bit as he reached his car and jammed the keys into the lock. He climbed into the driver’s seat, not even bothering with a seat belt, and fired up the engine. He was about to pull away from the curb when he noticed her wrench open the passenger door and hop in beside him. She shut the door as he stared at her.  
  
“What the fuck are you doing?” he demanded, fire lighting in his voice.  
  
“I am not leaving this car, AJ,” She said. “If you drive when you’re this tanked, you’re going to hurt someone. Maybe if I-”  
  
“Use yourself as collateral damage,” AJ piped up.  
  
“Well, I know you won’t endanger me, AJ. I have two boys at home who need me and you know that. So be rational and think of them before you pull out of this parking lot and put everyone’s lives in danger.”  
  
“You’re blackmailing me. You’re actually blackmailing me!”  
  
“Call it what you want,” Elizabeth said. “But I am trying to show you that -”  
  
“You’re a martyr.”  
  
“No, that I care,” Elizabeth said. “God knows, you’re all wrong for me but -”  
  
He snickered. “Oh this I’ve got to hear.”  
  
“Its true, AJ. You’re the kind of complication I don’t need in my already complicated life but guess what, my heart wants what it wants. It wants you, AJ. Not Jason. Not Lucky or anyone else. Just you.”  
  
AJ was determined to remain unmoved by that admission even as she reached over and took his calloused fingers in her much smaller ones. “AJ, believe that, okay? Jason and I happened one time when I was feeling low and miserable. He was missing someone else and I was devastated my marriage to Lucky was over. It was a moment where we reached out to each other -”  
  
“I don’t need to hear this,” he grumbled. “I will have to bleach my mind’s eye if you give me anymore details.”  
  
She frowned. “I am not giving you details, AJ. I am just saying it was a mistake and it ended the morning after it happened. You’re my future, AJ, not Jason or anyone else.”  
  
“If you say that enough, maybe we’ll both believe it...”  
  
“Stop it!” Elizabeth snapped. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You are a good man. You have your faults but so do I. So does everyone. You’re the man I want, AJ. You have to believe that. Jason and I were over a decade ago. We realized that after our one night stand. Neither of us wanted to continue it. You need to realize that too. You were and are the very best surprise of my life.”  
  
“Elizabeth...” His voice sounded husky and full of emotion to his own ears. Before he could stop himself, he was shutting off the ignition and pulling her to him, crushing her to his chest. His lips found hers and melded in a fiery kiss. She straddled his lap and kept kissing him. He felt her melting into his body and realized they were both drowning in something bigger than the both of them.  
  
They were drowning in desire, in hope ... in love.  
  
FINIS


End file.
